Profile | Wang Wentao: who is China’s ‘tall and loud’ commerce minister who once sold photocopiers?
- Wang Wentao was appointed China’s commerce minister in December 2020
- Educated at Fudan University in Shanghai, Wang is a former governor of Heilongjiang province and was once a colleague of President Xi Jinping in Shanghai
When was Wang Wentao born, and where was he educated?
Wang Wentao was born in the city of Nantong in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu in May 1964.
He graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, before gaining a master of business administration degree from the Macau University of Science and Technology in 2003.
How has Wang Wentao’s career progressed?
After graduating from Fudan University, Wang joined the Shanghai Aerospace Staff University – a vocational training school affiliated with an aerospace technology bureau – as an instructor before being promoted to vice-president of the school and the general manager of the photocopier sales department.
He left in November 2001 to join the Songjiang district government in Shanghai as director of the local development and planning committee. He was promoted to deputy district governor and also put in charge of the area’s export processing, technology and industrial estates until leaving in 2005.
In January 2005, Wang was transferred to the city of Kunming in Yunnan province to become deputy party chief and then mayor.
He served as governor and later party chief of Shanghai’s downtown Huangpu district, known for The Bund waterfront area, from 2007-11. During this period, Wang was a colleague of current President Xi Jinping, who was briefly Communist Party secretary for Shanghai.